A Different Way Of Doing Things
by Veritas Senpai
Summary: Jaune Arc never thought doing something as universally simple as dying could be so complicated. The first time he got the chance to do things over it was nice. At this point not so much. Follow Jaune as he tries a vastly different way of going through life in the hope of dying at last.


There were times where Jaune Arc wondered how he'd managed to get himself into dangerous, embarrassing and sometimes odd situations. In this scenario, he'd managed to land himself into a combination of the three.

He felt that while not entirely sane, his methods of trying to kill himself generally had more concrete moral backing, not that the moral high ground had prevented his seemingly endless cycle of living his life over and over again.

Jaune could still recall his first life with an absolute clarity. After the fall of Beacon, he'd taken Pyrrha's death hard. Thankfully the rest of his team and Ruby had been alongside him. They'd undertaken a journey to find out Cinder's goals by traveling to Haven and stopping them. It had only taken a year before he'd seen everyone butchered, his own life fading as Cinder had turned him into ash the same way Pyrrha had.

After which, he was crying and gazing up at his mother's exhausted face right after she'd given birth to him. The first time around he had tried aggressively utilizing all his future knowledge to stop the fall of Beacon, the only thing that changed was that Cinder had been put on guard and changed her plans. That time not only did Beacon fall _earlier_ because of a significantly more massive breach but he hadn't even survived it courtesy of Adam Taurus' blade taking his head.

That lifetime had taught him to perhaps hold his cards closer to his chest. It was in that learning experience where his journey truly began. Life after life, failure after failure, he'd tried changing various events, training from the beginning of his life

There were lives where he trained himself into the ground, achieving a level of skill to rival even Pyrrha in the ring. Those lives he tended to end up bombed, poisoned or annihilated by Cinder and her associates regardless.

Coming out to Ozpin with his knowledge of future events tended to go surprisingly well. Aside from the first few times where he'd ended up locked away or tortured he had managed to figure out how to space his knowledge out and present it in a way that earned the headmaster's compliance. Despite his own curse however, the headmaster was at a loss as to why he kept reincarnating. It was Ozpin who had suggested that until Salem was put down for good the cycle would likely continue to repeat.

All in all, it had been a few thousand lives total when he'd succeeded at last. Jaune would be the first to admit he never thought it would take so long, Salem's preparations had gone on for centuries and trying to undo it all in just over thirty years was more than a little challenging.

It was a finally a life where everyone from both RWBY and JNPR survived the war against Salem and her followers. In that life he'd married Pyrrha and lived a happy life long enough to see the birth of his first great-granddaughter Joan. Surrounded by his descendants there was an unmistakable joy to have succeeded in his eyes as closed for the last time and darkness embraced him.

Until they opened right back up to the sight of his mother's face _again_.

Jaune would claim that all the trauma and pain he'd been through prior was eclipsed entirely by that singular moment. He'd always assumed the reason his resurrection kept happening was because of some form of destiny pushing him towards stopping Salem. The question then became: why did he come back?

The answer to that question was something he was still looking for. Since that life he'd lived through so many he quit bothering to count, guessing it may have been in the hundreds again. Stopping Salem had become an exact science, something he didn't have to consciously worry about as he sought to try everything possible to lead to his death. He'd explored damn near all of Remnant, trying to see what it was he needed to accomplish to finally die.

There were multiple full lives for every woman in his life. Each with different children and grand-children. The only exceptions to this was Glynda Goodwitch and Cinder Fall. A relationship with Glynda was something he'd only tried for a few life times before realizing he'd probably die for good before that relationship was anywhere near feasible.

The one time he'd tried anything with Cinder Fall had resulted in a very slow, very painful immolation of his family jewels followed by having his throat opened up.

That was a door he refused to open again purely on principle.

During various lifetimes he'd survived to a variety of ages. Most of his lives had seen him surviving well into his nineties, sometimes even hitting triple digits. Other times he would kill himself after trying something new, either during Beacon, afterwards and even sometimes during his childhood.

The first few times he'd tried to off himself as a the most accident-prone baby on Remnant had resulted in a babyproofing of the Arc household that would have been inspiring if it hadn't been so inconvenient.

In age alone, he couldn't even comprehend another being older than himself.

It was perhaps the culmination of all these experiences that had left him objectively unhinged. The young and naïve Jaune Arc who wanted to save the world had long died. The old, bitter and enraged Jaune Arc had only one wish; to die for good.

In the end, all his frustrations had resulted in his now unique situation.

"I'm afraid I must have misheard you, could you repeat yourself Tyrian?" Jaune's cerulean eyes swiveled over to the speaker.

Salem sat on a throne, resplendent in all her dark glory with an expression of genuine confusion. Her dark veins contrasted against her ageless pale skin in a way that would normally fill someone with revulsion. In his own opinion the glowing red eyes filled with confusion made for an amusing sight, if only because of how it contrasted against her opinion. The feeling of bewilderment shared slightly by one of the other occupants in the room.

"This…child was riding a beowulf my goddess. I'm don't know why a two-year old has an active aura, or how for that matter. I wouldn't have noticed him if he hadn't ridden the beast straight into my campfire before jumping off and watching as it burned to death" Tyrian's voice was filled with no small amount of disbelief even as he said the words. The scorpion faunus knelt in front of her throne, one hand on the floor as he regaled her with the tale.

His golden eyes narrowed roved over to the small child seated on the floor beside his kneeling form. Jaune was dressed in a simple pair of baby blue pajamas with a pair of white fluffy socks. The innocent choice of clothing seemingly contrasting with Tyrian's story in a way that made the situation more surreal.

"Tyrn!" he exclaimed, deliberately butchering his name in the most adorable way he knew how. Turning to face Salem he began to slowly crawl towards her, shuffling on his hands and knees. Internally grinning as she held up a hand to stop Tyrian from preventing him he made his way to the base of her throne.

Sitting down on his rear he raised his arms up, black aura flaring around his body as he tilted his head and said "…Ma?"

Were he to die at this moment, the sheer shock in Salem's eyes would have made this experiment worth it.

Fortunately, after a moment's pause, Salem reached down.

For this life Jaune Arc had established a new goal for himself. Failing to save the world resulted in resurrection and saving the world resulted in resurrection. Perhaps taking over everything and helping Salem may just grant him the death he so desired.

Was it going to be hard to kick his old habits? He was almost tempted to believe so. However he'd spent millennia saving the world, how hard could conquering it be when Salem had already done most of the legwork?

 **AN: This was a plot bunny that has been hopping around in my mind for almost two damn months. Unlike my last story which was started up and written on the fly, I've planned this one out quite a bit. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter because there's going to be a lot more on the way! This was inspired by the wonderful stories of the RWBY fandom, particularly the masterful Coeur Al'Aran!**


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